The invention relates to a method for storing multimedia application information that allows for subsequent execution on different platforms and presentation to a user. Multimedia application programs or applications should be executable on different platforms. Such platform must satisfy minimum resource requirements for being able to guarantee that the application in question will run thereon correctly. A method according to the preamble has been disclosed in EP Application 95202811.6, corresponding U.S. application Ser. No. 08/735,275 (PHN 15497) by Elbers, assigned to the present assignee and herein being incorporated by reference. A general approach for designing or writing an application in such a way that it is enabled to run on one of many possible target platforms is by scripting: therein the program is written for a virtual platform, whereas it will later on be run on any of a set of real target platforms. Scripting in particular has been considered in EP Application 731,971 corresponding U.S. application Ser. No. 08/533,030 (PHN 15058) by Gelissen, assigned to the present assignee and herein being incorporated by reference. More in detail, an appropriate language therefor has been described in the OSMOSE project, ESPRIT project 6788, public version 1.0, Copyright Philips Electronics, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and presented to the US PTO in the latter application's docket.
It is a problem that the platform should have enough facilities such as in terms of processing speed and memory storage, or rather, the application should not require more than a certain amount of facilities for allowing the application to run in real-time. Correct operation in a multi-tasking environment is even more difficult to predict; in particular so, because also other unpredictable tasks could be running simultaneously. Therefore, verifying the correct operation, and in certain cases, the balancing between quality of execution and speed of execution is required for various platforms.